It is really difficult to describe how well the combat flows, and the review didn't even mention the comboing system, which makes certain skills faster, more damaging or have some other effect if used after certain other skills, and you can fire off the next skill in the combo with a single context-sensitive button press. It works so well you can even play the game with a controller, and has schemes designed for that (including native PS3 controller support). Your hotbar certainly doesn't need to very big to use every ability in your arsenal.It's certainly a fun game to have a bash with, although they haven't got any sort of free trial, which is odd, as you kinda need it to see just how different the combat is. The costly subscription also doesn't help, sitting at the baseline MMO rate on top of purchasing a copy.It's a shame really, as it's certainly a game I'd enjoy playing around with, but I can't justify any sort of subscription like that, disregarding the fact I can't really afford it.

Some sort of credit has to go for the art style too, some of those zones are simply gorgeous.

While I'm here there's a formatting error with the link to the game's site on endgame content, as the formatting has been included as part of the link so it doesn't actually go anywhere.

Although at least the changing monsters mean you've got new attack patterns to learn and anticipate. Still mostly just the same thing though, though you might not care if you're enjoying the combat so much. I certainly didn't.

I love how tricky the BAMs can be. They will flat out charge an attack, begin an attack, or fake an attack, and then cancel it and hit you with something else. I've even seen them fake being stunned. You can also fight a BAM for a full 5 minutes without seeing everything it can do.

And BAMs can hurt other mobs/BAMs... so getting two BAMs to trample each other constantly is pretty damn awesome.

Irridium:I'd probably be all over this game if not for The Old Republic. After playing that game... I just don't want to go back to the impersonal text boxes.

Now if a game came along that combined The Old Republic's focus on story with Tera's combat, well... I may never be heard from again.

Given the single player feel of TOR, I'd pass on anything like it again. It actively had me telling people in Vent to shut up so I could listen to a cut scene.

I much prefer Tera's "Who cares what the text box says, let's kill it and move on so we can murder all the players around us."

The quest window looks....pretty much exactly like World of Warcraft, as if they copied it wholesale. And is combat looks like a less dynamic version of Guild Wars 2. Yet we're supposed to believe TERA is a beacon of originality. Yeah, sorry, not buying what you're selling. Keep in mind this is the same development group being sued for stealing art from NCSoft (the company that currently sponsors ArenaNet, makers of GW2), so it's not like TERA's developers have any sort of basis in originality to begin with.

I was legitimately cracking up as the reviewer described how dynamic the combat is, while his character stood perfectly still and spammed the same attack over and over. MY, HOW RIVETING. Hate to say it, but GW2 is already going there and it's doing what TERA is trying to do a heck of a lot better. GW2's still got its flaws of course, since dynamic event scaling in the last beta was pretty far off-target, and there are other issues too. But I prefer its dynamic events to the old WoW quest structure that TERA has copied.

The reviewer was right about one thing though: it's a game caught between the past and future of MMO gaming, in that it duplicates elements from both the past and future games of the MMO genre, and doesn't look like it struck the right balance in either one. With virtually no story, only mildly dynamic combat, and an outdated questing structure, what exactly is supposed to attract me to this game as a skeptic and possible buyer? It uses WoW's questing system so identically that even the quest giving window reminds me of WoW, it has combat that (in any footage of the game I've seen) appears far less dynamic than people say it is, and its story doesn't hold a candle to either SWTOR or GW2.

....so, am I supposed to buy it for the lolis, then? No, I'm serious. Where's the draw? Why are people so hyped about this title? The more I see, the less I like.

Genixma:So it's Vindictus except with character customization and anyone can be anything.

Its nothing like Vindictus. Vindictus you can interact with your environment, smash crates and barrels over the heads of enemies, interact with traps, climb ladders, break objects, etc. Tera has the basic attacks similar, but its a standard mmo "look don't touch" affair. Its a shame really that you can't interact with the world because it would do loads for the game. Also Tera relies on cooldowns for skills instead of stamina.

Speaking as someone who has both Tera, and GW2. The combat, that is why. He played a lancer (Tank) Who don't really do damage at all and have the most boring combat, they are the ones that hold agro. But I play one of the two healer classes (Mystic, better pvp) and I can tell you now, I'm glad I now have a game where combat isn't dictated by equipment. I can still win against someone 4-5 levels above me, so long as I'm on the ball, even being a healer, because skill.

The combat in TERA is interesting, certainly. Combo attacks and fast-paced action sequences are definitely cool and fun, but there's one thing dramatically holding it back. Two words: root animations.

You can't do anything while moving unless the skill itself involves movement. It may not feel so out of place at first, but after playing games with "real" action combat (i.e. God of War) to remember what that feels like, TERA starts to feel jerky and awkward. And, I'm sorry to say, combat is pretty much all TERA has. Without it, there's really nothing else to do.

I think Penny Arcade had the right idea. If we could somehow combine Star Wars: The Old Republic's story focus, Guild Wars 2's living world and dynamic questing systems, and TERA's actiony combat mechanics into a single, powerhouse experience... well, pretty much the world would end. (and it would be awesome).

The only mmo i have ever liked was ff11 before all the changes in 09-10~ and ive never been able to get into another mmo since (other than World of Tanks but thats not rly an mmo), so i decided to give it a try, i must say it's possibly the most pretty mmo i've seen and the combat is awesome but and its a BIG but...it still has the same old boring kill/collect x amount in more or less every quest.

It also has some voiced parts of the game but its abit of a let down when there far and few apart, i would have thought for a game which took me 14 hours to download (25gb)the main quests would have all been voiced.

I dunno if i'll keep playing, i'll see if i continue to enjoy but i have a feeling i'll soon run out of main quests and then get bored (i'm already lvl24 out of 60 and i've been playing for 2days).

Oh one thing i should mention is the game can be a little glitchy, it runs wonderfully but on ocasion it will just hang and if i ctrl+alt+del it will all of a sudden unhang, as well as the fact that sometimes the monster will just sit there as though its lagging but i can attack other enemies...

The thing about the opening tutorial when you crash on the beach at Level 20 is that is designed to let you see how some of the more advanced skills and techniques of the class you chose work and feel. Basically it lets you know what you're in for and to get a taste of it on 30 minutes to see if you like it rather than you wasting 5 hours even getting any class defining skills only to find out you're not good at the class or don't like it like many other MMOs.

I find the combat more than redeems the WoW-ness of the quests. I liked WoW for some time, but the boring quests combined with the stat-based gameplay and the lack of any real engagement in story until basically Wraith of Lich king content kills the interest in keeping play.

Even with the same quest system though, the great visuals, attempt to have some story throughout the game and the actually fun-to-play combat makes the game worth it for me.

CriticKitten:The quest window looks....pretty much exactly like World of Warcraft, as if they copied it wholesale. And is combat looks like a less dynamic version of Guild Wars 2. Yet we're supposed to believe TERA is a beacon of originality. Yeah, sorry, not buying what you're selling. Keep in mind this is the same development group being sued for stealing art from NCSoft (the company that currently sponsors ArenaNet, makers of GW2), so it's not like TERA's developers have any sort of basis in originality to begin with.

I was legitimately cracking up as the reviewer described how dynamic the combat is, while his character stood perfectly still and spammed the same attack over and over. MY, HOW RIVETING. Hate to say it, but GW2 is already going there and it's doing what TERA is trying to do a heck of a lot better. GW2's still got its flaws of course, since dynamic event scaling in the last beta was pretty far off-target, and there are other issues too. But I prefer its dynamic events to the old WoW quest structure that TERA has copied.

The reviewer was right about one thing though: it's a game caught between the past and future of MMO gaming, in that it duplicates elements from both the past and future games of the MMO genre, and doesn't look like it struck the right balance in either one. With virtually no story, only mildly dynamic combat, and an outdated questing structure, what exactly is supposed to attract me to this game as a skeptic and possible buyer? It uses WoW's questing system so identically that even the quest giving window reminds me of WoW, it has combat that (in any footage of the game I've seen) appears far less dynamic than people say it is, and its story doesn't hold a candle to either SWTOR or GW2.

....so, am I supposed to buy it for the lolis, then? No, I'm serious. Where's the draw? Why are people so hyped about this title? The more I see, the less I like.

In all fairness, that was not my character. I (the reviewer and writer of the script) was not able to capture footage of my ACTUAL character, so Greg (the narrator) had to do the prologue. And he chose a lancer and doesn't know how to play. Combat is a LOT more fun than what is demonstrated in the video.

I love action RPG's but this games combat looks bad from what different videos on the internet give me. Maybe I'm used to those instance-based f2p MMOs like dragons nest that have great skillful combat systems that rely on a lot more than just dodging and counterattacking.

I'm playing a game right now called continent of the ninth (f2p multiplayer action RPG. It's in closed beta right now) and the combat is much more impressive.

Every class (10 released so far, eventually it'll have 17) has its own unique move set. There are no healing skills, there are no tanks that can draw aggro, and everything can be soloed with a bit of skill. Your only role in a party is to do a lot of damage without dying (Which gets really on later bosses and when the higher difficulties come out)

The combo system feels better too. Whenever i take my assassin; double jump into my enemy and hammer kick them into the ground so hard they bounce off, start juggling them with a combination of dagger attacks kicks and arrow shots, and then piledrive them into the ground, it always makes me feel like a badass. So does taking my illusionist and summoning a massive tornado to suck every enemy in and then summoning magical spinning blades of death inside the tornado to make sure everything dies. The combo system in TERA seems to be just a series of attacks that just serve to boost DPS and nothing more.

I don't know.. maybe this video isn't a good indicator of the combat in TERA, but it just looks so unimpressive. I looked at other videos online too but i just can't get excited for it. I'll look into TERA if they ever add a free trial, but other than that I'm not interested enough.

Edit: Mr. Funk, i just noticed your title. Thanks a lot, now i have to go to YouTube and listen to hundreds of touhou remixes. I was just about to do something productive too.

Elate:Speaking as someone who has both Tera, and GW2. The combat, that is why. He played a lancer (Tank) Who don't really do damage at all and have the most boring combat, they are the ones that hold agro. But I play one of the two healer classes (Mystic, better pvp) and I can tell you now, I'm glad I now have a game where combat isn't dictated by equipment. I can still win against someone 4-5 levels above me, so long as I'm on the ball, even being a healer, because skill.

I could usually manage to do that in GW2 myself, provided I was smart about my movement, which made me really enjoy the combat and (thankfully) made it easier to survive wandering into a zone that's too high leveled for me (which is something they need to fix because that is so very easy to do....I would surprise myself how often I'd be in a zone that was a good 3-5 levels above the stuff I was supposed to be killing at low levels). So while that's good to hear, it's still not a feature unique to TERA. Since GW2 and TERA have the same aim with their combat, it seems they'd be the closest to compare against each other, and....judging from the footage I've seen (not just this review but other videos as well), I have to say that in terms of personal taste, I just like the feel of GW2 more. The fighting just seems far more exciting when I know I *can't* stand still and take damage, no matter what profession I play as. It forces me to move around, to plan, to be strategic and to think. And I like that. TERA seems to be mixing traditional class systems with action-adventure combat, and I'm not sure it hybridizes quite as well for me since the whole point of action-adventure combat is "don't get hit" and in traditional MMO models, the tank's SOLE ROLE is to get hit as much as possible so that the other players don't get hit. Those two styles seem to clash somewhat, especially if the tanks can still manage to stand still (thus defeating the point of movement-based combat).

But I suppose that's all personal taste.

John Funk:In all fairness, that was not my character. I (the reviewer and writer of the script) was not able to capture footage of my ACTUAL character, so Greg (the narrator) had to do the prologue. And he chose a lancer and doesn't know how to play. Combat is a LOT more fun than what is demonstrated in the video.

Goodness, I would hope so. It looked just like every other MMO's combat with only minor movement changes, based on that footage. I tried doing that in GW2 due to being new to that style of combat, and I died....a lot, even in the early levels. That forced me to play more dynamically and fire on the go, moving around all the time, and eventually I came to prefer that combat. But in your video, he was taking his stand-still beating like a champ....which is part of the reason that I was amazed at how BORING it seemed. It wasn't at all like you were describing.

Interesting. Nice review. Combat in MMOs it mostly accepted as a perfunctory affair, and the fun lies in loot and building up your character in terms of gear, levels, appearance, mounts, gold, etc. Combat mostly serves to pace the game rather than be a barrier to completion, as we see in linear or semi-linear single player games.

The other area of fun, or should I say attachment, to MMOs, is grouping with people and forming guilds, and using guilds to further your gear. Gear and guilds, and a sense of shared fantasy, is enough to get one hooked on a good MMO.

So, I'm not totally sure that better combat is a problem that MMO players were really demanding be fixed, or needed to be fixed. I mean, I don't see good combat changing combats secondary role in an MMO. Just like a good background (or foreground) story is good but not essential. Still, it will be interesting to see how this does, and if the combat system really adds a new dimension that re-invigorates the genre.

If I were itching for an MMO fix I'd probably check out Rifts at this point rather than TERA, much as I appreciate the costume design of its female characters.

Dynamic combat in GW2, really? because when I watched Totalbiscuit's videos it sure looked like all he ever did was stand perfectly still and spam ability rotations and everything was going down insanely fast, and the stamina bar that lets you doge looks like it recharges with the speed of a fat unmotivated sloth. As for your question of whats the draw, I would say that for me its simply that I haven't played enough MMOs to be sick of the WoW style questing but I have no tolerance for the WoW combat, and every single time a new "feature" of GW2 gets announced I think "god that sounds awful". (one example is the buzz around the fact that the world and cities are insanely huge and there is no mounts which has the fans going "OMG massive living world" and me thinking "oh god I spend enough time disinterestedly auto-running from place to place in a normal MMO and now I need to do more so the game can rub my face in the environments like a misbehaving dog")And i'm fine with the sub fee as far as TERA vs. GW2 goes because I dislike microtransactions immensely, at lest with the sub fee it feels like i'm getting the whole game.(seriously, $10 for extra character slots? fuck you NCsoft)

Elate:Speaking as someone who has both Tera, and GW2. The combat, that is why. He played a lancer (Tank) Who don't really do damage at all and have the most boring combat, they are the ones that hold agro. But I play one of the two healer classes (Mystic, better pvp) and I can tell you now, I'm glad I now have a game where combat isn't dictated by equipment. I can still win against someone 4-5 levels above me, so long as I'm on the ball, even being a healer, because skill.

I could usually manage to do that in GW2 myself, provided I was smart about my movement, which made me really enjoy the combat and (thankfully) made it easier to survive wandering into a zone that's too high leveled for me (which is something they need to fix because that is so very easy to do....I would surprise myself how often I'd be in a zone that was a good 3-5 levels above the stuff I was supposed to be killing at low levels). So while that's good to hear, it's still not a feature unique to TERA. Since GW2 and TERA have the same aim with their combat, it seems they'd be the closest to compare against each other, and....judging from the footage I've seen (not just this review but other videos as well), I have to say that in terms of personal taste, I just like the feel of GW2 more. The fighting just seems far more exciting when I know I *can't* stand still and take damage, no matter what profession I play as. It forces me to move around, to plan, to be strategic and to think. And I like that. TERA seems to be mixing traditional class systems with action-adventure combat, and I'm not sure it hybridizes quite as well for me since the whole point of action-adventure combat is "don't get hit" and in traditional MMO models, the tank's SOLE ROLE is to get hit as much as possible so that the other players don't get hit. Those two styles seem to clash somewhat, especially if the tanks can still manage to stand still (thus defeating the point of movement-based combat).

But I suppose that's all personal taste.

John Funk:In all fairness, that was not my character. I (the reviewer and writer of the script) was not able to capture footage of my ACTUAL character, so Greg (the narrator) had to do the prologue. And he chose a lancer and doesn't know how to play. Combat is a LOT more fun than what is demonstrated in the video.

Goodness, I would hope so. It looked just like every other MMO's combat with only minor movement changes, based on that footage. I tried doing that in GW2 due to being new to that style of combat, and I died....a lot, even in the early levels. That forced me to play more dynamically and fire on the go, moving around all the time, and eventually I came to prefer that combat. But in your video, he was taking his stand-still beating like a champ....which is part of the reason that I was amazed at how BORING it seemed. It wasn't at all like you were describing.

There are two types of tanks in TERA. One is the Lancer, which you saw in the video. It's more traditional, based around soaking damage, etc, but it can also manually block attacks to shield both it and any party members behind it, so it's a BIT more dynamic than in the video. Greg's just bad at playing the game (and in all fairness, he'd never played before when he had to shoot the footage. It was a tricky situation).

The other tank is the Warrior, who plays just like you describe - the Warrior is a much faster-paced evasion tank who survives by rolling and dodging out of the way before it can get hit. It's also a lot harder than the Lancer, and I haven't played with a good Warrior tank yet as a healer.

major_chaos:Dynamic combat in GW2, really? because when I watched Totalbiscuit's videos it sure looked like all he ever did was stand perfectly still and spam ability rotations and everything was going down insanely fast, and the stamina bar that lets you doge looks like it recharges with the speed of a fat unmotivated sloth.

It's certainly more dynamic than TERA's appears to be.

See? We can both do this argument of he-said-she-said all day, except that GW2 is actually designed to make tanking impossible and TERA isn't, meaning that such an argument is pointless since it's pretty clear which game requires more movement in order to survive.

As for your question of whats the draw, I would say that for me its simply that I haven't played enough MMOs to be sick of the WoW style questing but I have no tolerance for the WoW combat

That's fine, it's a matter of personal taste. I just get sick of people trying to pretend TERA is doing something new when it's not. GW2 was announced before TERA and offers the same action-adventure style of combat (though arguably does it better since the combat requires movement, whereas TERA enables people to continue using the traditional MMO role of a tank....which sort of defeats the purpose of having movement in the first place, IMO), and WoW offers precisely the same questing system. You can say you like the way TERA hybridizes the two just fine, but you can't say that it's doing something new when it's not.

Hell, it's not even fair to say GW2 is doing something new as far as that style of combat since it's pretty standard action-adventure style combat.

and every single time a new "feature" of GW2 gets announced I think "god that sounds awful". (one example is the buzz around the fact that the world and cities are insanely huge and there is no mounts which has the fans going "OMG massive living world" and me thinking "oh god I spend enough time disinterestedly auto-running from place to place in a normal MMO and now I need to do more so the game can rub my face in the environments like a misbehaving dog")

Actually....this works incredibly well and never felt intrusive.

I'll admit, I was skeptical of the idea myself, until a certain point in the beta when I was sold on the idea. I needed a break so I had my character take a rest in the middle of a monastery. I figured that's the safest place you can be, right? lolnope. When I returned to the game mere minutes later, I found the place infested with demonic hellspawn from the Underworld pouring out of giant glowing portals. Needless to say, I had to rush to defend myself and close the portals. Then the game informed me that there were reports of more portals deeper in the swamp, so I followed my map and helped lead a small group of people into killing off the monsters and portals there, too. Feeling a bit invested by this point, I go deeper into the swamp when the game informs me that there's some kind of disturbance there. By this point our group has grown to a good 50-60 people as we clean out more portals and mobs. Finally, we finish that off, and then out of nowhere this GIANT demonic/undead black monster pops out of the ground. It's dropping AoE all over the field and opening portals which deploy more underworld monsters. People are running around to avoid AoE and dropping like flies. I found myself in a chaotic mess of a battle, sometimes dropping spells on the big monster in the center of the field, sometimes cleaning up nearby portals, and other times going to the aid of nearby downed players to help them back up. It was truly an amazing event and it's the most fun I've had playing a game in a very long time.

Apparently this was some sort of boss fight spawned by this recurring dynamic event system. It can be replayed if you wish or you can never bother with it if you wish also. But the thing that sold me on it is how completely random it was. It felt authentic and enjoyable because I found myself under attack seemingly at random, I wasn't asked to go kill 20 of a certain monster and then had to auto-run out to a field to kill that monster. I got thrown into battle, defended myself, and found myself facing down a boss in the span of less than an hour, and I honestly enjoyed the hell out of it. More power to you if you still find enjoyment in simple "kill X of Y" quests, but after experiencing that, I don't know if I, personally, can go back to those quests and enjoy them at all.

Also, mounts are stupid, honestly. They exist for two reasons in general:1) To impress other people (which doesn't work on me at all)2) To move faster (which isn't something I care too much about)

If you're all about impressing others, or are simply that impatient that you NEED that 10-25% speed boost, then perhaps you shouldn't play MMOs at all, since the whole point of having a big world is to be able to enjoy it. Otherwise you might as well just throw waypoints at people. Besides, GW2 has waypoints if you're that impatient as to not run across the world. It'll just cost you a small amount of gold to do so, which is quite honestly fair enough since you'd be paying *real money* for your mount anyways.

And i'm fine with the sub fee as far as TERA vs. GW2 goes because I dislike microtransactions immensely, at lest with the sub fee it feels like i'm getting the whole game.(seriously, $10 for extra character slots? fuck you NCsoft)

....except that the character slots are 100% optional, and you're still going to have character limits in TERA too, meaning that you'll have to pay for them in TERA if you want more characters just as readily as in GW2. I'm not sure what kind of argument you're trying to make here, but I certainly hope it wasn't that TERA is somehow cheaper than GW2. Because....it's not. Buy-once-play-forever is *always* cheaper than a subscription MMO because the microtransactions are *always* optional. They can sometimes be unbalanced as hell, but they're never required to play the game, so they don't count as required costs no matter how you twist your frame of reference. Whereas a subscription MUST be paid in order to keep playing.

John Funk:There are two types of tanks in TERA. One is the Lancer, which you saw in the video. It's more traditional, based around soaking damage, etc, but it can also manually block attacks to shield both it and any party members behind it, so it's a BIT more dynamic than in the video. Greg's just bad at playing the game (and in all fairness, he'd never played before when he had to shoot the footage. It was a tricky situation).

The other tank is the Warrior, who plays just like you describe - the Warrior is a much faster-paced evasion tank who survives by rolling and dodging out of the way before it can get hit. It's also a lot harder than the Lancer, and I haven't played with a good Warrior tank yet as a healer.

That's informative, thank you. It's interesting that TERA opted to stick with more traditional combat roles despite having an action-adventure combat system, it just seems like an odd pairing.

I will say that I tried playing as a Guardian in GW2 and I found it damn hard to play for the same reason: much of the Guardian's weaponry is melee focused, and it's hard to play a profession that requires a ton of movement while also requiring melee combat. But it's also very interesting to watch good players do it, because when they get good....good lord do they get good. I'm impressed at anyone who manages to survive a role like that.

John Funk:There are two types of tanks in TERA. One is the Lancer, which you saw in the video. It's more traditional, based around soaking damage, etc, but it can also manually block attacks to shield both it and any party members behind it, so it's a BIT more dynamic than in the video. Greg's just bad at playing the game (and in all fairness, he'd never played before when he had to shoot the footage. It was a tricky situation).

The other tank is the Warrior, who plays just like you describe - the Warrior is a much faster-paced evasion tank who survives by rolling and dodging out of the way before it can get hit. It's also a lot harder than the Lancer, and I haven't played with a good Warrior tank yet as a healer.

That's informative, thank you. It's interesting that TERA opted to stick with more traditional combat roles despite having an action-adventure combat system, it just seems like an odd pairing.

I will say that I tried playing as a Guardian in GW2 and I found it damn hard to play for the same reason: much of the Guardian's weaponry is melee focused, and it's hard to play a profession that requires a ton of movement while also requiring melee combat. But it's also very interesting to watch good players do it, because when they get good....good lord do they get good. I'm impressed at anyone who manages to survive a role like that.

I actually really like it. I play a healer myself, and I *love* how it makes healer roles actually engaging rather than watching health bars and playing whack-a-mole. I need to get into combat for aoe heals, drop heals on areas, lock onto targets, and most importantly - mana regen isn't just a passive thing. I burn through MP quickly, but regen it quickly with an active skill. So for me, it's a question of trying to top everyone off, get in, and then quickly find some time to regen when I have a breather. Really fun.

2xDouble:I think Penny Arcade had the right idea. If we could somehow combine Star Wars: The Old Republic's story focus, Guild Wars 2's living world and dynamic questing systems, and TERA's actiony combat mechanics into a single, powerhouse experience... well, pretty much the world would end. (and it would be awesome).

I remember the comic and thinking "well, i disagree with every panel, but to each it's own"; then reading the news associated with the strip, seeing this:

You get hooked on the writing and story production of a Bioware Game, and The Old Republic was no exception; both of these games (ToR & GW2) have serious things to say about Player Vs. Player also.

And laughting at the total ignorance they show about MMO PvP. It was the joke of the week for the small group of PvP guys i play with.

Italics mine.

John Funk:I actually really like it. I play a healer myself, and I *love* how it makes healer roles actually engaging rather than watching health bars and playing whack-a-mole. I need to get into combat for aoe heals, drop heals on areas, lock onto targets, and most importantly - mana regen isn't just a passive thing. I burn through MP quickly, but regen it quickly with an active skill. So for me, it's a question of trying to top everyone off, get in, and then quickly find some time to regen when I have a breather. Really fun.

Isn't that the standard way to regen mana as a healer? You could have wrote exactly the same about a WoW Paladin regen, word by word.

Anyway, i would play it if i had time. As it is now it seems a slight (if any) improvement over GW 2 combat and a sharp decay in every other area; and i do not have time to fool around, especially because the PvP which is what i do at endgame seems inane.

John Funk:I actually really like it. I play a healer myself, and I *love* how it makes healer roles actually engaging rather than watching health bars and playing whack-a-mole. I need to get into combat for aoe heals, drop heals on areas, lock onto targets, and most importantly - mana regen isn't just a passive thing. I burn through MP quickly, but regen it quickly with an active skill. So for me, it's a question of trying to top everyone off, get in, and then quickly find some time to regen when I have a breather. Really fun.

I've always preferred back-row roles myself. Archer-types and magi-types. Which is why I've always been disappointed in games which force me to stand still while I cast my spells or shoot my arrows (so basically, every MMO ever) because it strikes me as an incredibly stupid idea for me as a ranger or mage to stand still and let the bad guy run up to me while I'm plunking arrows into his chest. It's something that annoyed me even with the original Guild Wars....I'm a ranger, but must stand still to shoot arrows, so the big guy with the massive hammer can run up to me and smack me in the face with it. Bad strategy there.

GW2's Ranger, on the other hand, lets me strafe like a madman while plunking arrows into my enemies at ridiculous speeds. It's easy to see why I sort of like that style of combat and might be inclined to stick with it.

I'm interested in TERA's combat and how exactly that sort of thing works while keeping traditional class roles, and it's nice to know that another game manages to achieve a good healthy mix of movement and skill spam. However, since I already get that from GW2 and since TERA's a subscription-based game (and I am on a tight budget, especially in this job market), TERA would need to do something pretty damn special to win me over....and right now I'm not sure it's got anything like that. Your review notes that it doesn't have much of a story to speak of, which is another way it could've possibly drawn me in....and it has the traditional MMO quest style, which I just don't find fun after years of MMO play. So while it might be a good game, it seems to be lacking in ways it can appeal to someone like me, who has gotten tired of traditional MMOs and already has GW2 on deck. That may hurt TERA in the long run, even moreso than the fact that it's subscription-based in an age where MMOs are finding it harder and harder to pull that business model off. More power to you if you can find yourself playing it over WoW, I suppose, but I expect this game will have the same reaction as SWTOR did: a massive exodus once people get tired of the novelties it provides.

The other tank is the Warrior, who plays just like you describe - the Warrior is a much faster-paced evasion tank who survives by rolling and dodging out of the way before it can get hit. It's also a lot harder than the Lancer, and I haven't played with a good Warrior tank yet as a healer.

I currently play a Warrior tank, only around level 35 at the moment. I have never played a tank class so exciting as the warrior. I really wish you had some footage of the Warrior class in action. Even a DPS Warrior is extremely flashy to watch in action.Every action you take is preemptive, you absolutely can not afford to take that hit because your balance is low, your armor is leather and your healer is never good enough to catch you, at least in my experience. I spent a while tanking Sinestral Manor and let me tell you, you do not want to take a whack from Duke Volperon.I also enjoy playing around and taking on BAMs of around the same level as myself solo in the world. I just love how any BAM in this game can be taken on solo if you have the skill (and patience) to attempt it. Should you happen to play on Basilisk Crag and want to see a (self proclaimed) good Warrior tank, hit up Shibuya any time.

Rainboq:I would be interest, if not for the female armour sets. Seriously, if you want to have skimpy armour, fine, BUT DON'T MAKE IT BE THE BETTER ARMOUR. I'm pretty sure EC talked about it.

All of the armor is skimpy for females with the exception of the Amani, even the starting armor. It just turns into different kinds of skimpy.

-_- That just pisses me off, why the hell can't female avatars in these sorts of games ever dress sensibly?!

Now, this is just simply not true. My warrior is always completely covered with at worst a low cut top. It is true that some of the caster classes, Sorcerers in particular, wear pretty risque outfits but it's not true to say all of them are. It should also be noted that certain set of armor actually change your character's hair style when worn, which is a pretty cool little feature in my opinion.